Promise to Never Leave
by OwlCookies XD
Summary: In which Skye has to forget about her family because of the side effects of project T.A.H.I.T.I. and Ward watches her from afar. Based off of an ask on Tumblr by like, Skyewardsstan.
1. Chapter 1

"_Skye… Skye listen to me. If we don't do this now, your mind is going to deteriorate. Do you understand?" His hands were on her shoulders as he looked deep in her wandering eyes._

_Skye stopped looking around after one glance back. "If we do this, I forget about you, I forget about the rest of the team, I forget about him, and I forget about… my family…"_

_Coulson tightened his grip on her shoulders and his throat grew tight as he searched desperately for words. "I-"_

"_Let's do this." She looked him straight in the eye. "But promise me one thing."_

"_Of course, yes, anything. What is it?" A whisper into his ear and he nodded. "Alright." He gently stroked her hair and pulled her into a tight hug. "We'll miss you."_

"_I know."_

He watched her from the shadows. It was an average night in Los Angeles. The sky was dark, but the streets were littered with flashing neon signs and dimming street lights; cars drove by quickly, blinding you for moments through the traffic and then disappearing into the far darkness farther up ahead. Friday nights always had all different kinds of people flooding the sidewalks. Homeless people, hauling their bags of bottles or pushing their carts, night clubbers laughing and drinking cocktail in their fancy outfits, your average family going out for a stroll, couples deeply in love strutting about hand in hand. One or two shouts were heard in the calm night as thieves and robbers claimed their loot and ran away. A police siren chased after them.

But he, he who could have been any of that, stood alone, hidden in the dim shadows on the alleyway he had ducked behind. Of any sights he could have laid his eyes on, it was here. It was them. It was _her_. His vantage point didn't give him a clear view of her, not past other groups of people walking past her and obscuring his view. Then it was as clear as day when they walked past his alley and he pressed himself as far back into the wall behind him as he could and just kept his gaze right on her.

She was holding another man's hand. Not his. She was laughing at another man's words, not him. She was smiling at another man, not him. She and the other man were hand in hand and oh did he despise that man. But it never showed on his face. Nothing ever real did show on his robotic face and maybe that was of his own fault. No, not maybe. It was. He admitted it was. This was the life Skye deserved. There was no knowledge that any second could be your last and no threat at gunpoint every other day or so. No, now Skye had a real family she could belong with.

But Grant Ward hated that and he hated himself for selfishly thinking that he could take Skye and just make things better. She was right. Wasn't she always?

He watched Skye and the other man disappear behind a swarm of women in high heels laughing at a fancy man telling them a story. Ward closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he could barely see Skye's fingers laced together with the other man's fingers. In his mind, that was his hand. In his mind, it was him and Skye walking through the calm and bustling streets of Los Angeles. Her smile was meant for him. Her laugh was a laugh at him and he'd smile back. He smiled at her once, he could do it again and again and again and forever. If Ward had his way, he and Skye would-

"You need to let her go, Ward. She's gone."

Ward clenched his fists and looked at the man leaning against the wall across from him. He was wearing a tux, hah, of course. When did he ever not? Those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, always dressed so formally and sticking out so profusely.

"I _know_," Ward replied. "Don't you think I know that already? I _know_, Coulson."

"Then why are you still here?" He said it more as a statement if anything.

Ward looked right into his eyes. "Ever since she found out, it's been messed up. There's no hope for us. She's the light and I'm the darkness who could never possibly reach her. I can only protect her and that's what I intended to do. If you try to stop me-"

"Shut up, Ward. I won't try to stop you if that's your intention. She means a lot to all of us too." Coulson crossed his arms. "I was just going to check up on her, but since you're here, I'll go." He stood upright and turned his heel, his back toward Ward as he began to walk away. Before he disappeared, he hesitated and turned his head back to look at him. He opened his mouth to say something, thought differently, shook his head, and then disappeared completely.

About two hours later, Skye and the other man walked past his alley again. They stopped walking in front of his alley. Their hands were still twined together and they looked into each other's eyes. Their lips met. His free hand was in her hair and hers on his back; their other hand, still together. If Ward had his way… Well, he had had that way. Once, such a long time ago, that man kissing her had been him. Such a long time ago in a messed up fairy tale, it was him kissing Skye and it was he who held her hand. Now it meant nothing. Now she didn't remember, couldn't remember.

By the time Skye and the man pulled away from each other, Ward was gone. Skye's eyes darted to the dim alley and then looked back at the man. Hand in hand, they walked back home, smiling and laughing at each other. The man, in place of Ward, would start a nice and warm fire, despite how cheesy that was. Skye would make the two of them hot chocolate. They would sit together by the fire, wrapped in a blanket, and talk about their families. He had one, she had none.

"I've never really had a family that I felt like I could belong in," Skye told him and he pressed himself closer to her, telling her that he was her family now. She nodded.

He talked about his family and how different everyone was, yet they worked together functionally. His twin siblings, a boy and girl, were always inseparable. As they grew older, the boy refused to leave the girl's side, but the girl was trying to move on to new things. A father who wasn't good at much, but was cool-minded and calm. And there was a woman, who he never really knew his relation to. But she was quiet, intelligent, and had a knack of knowing what was right. Skye listened and she felt something stir within her.

"_Promise me that all of you will never leave me."_

xxx

whoo so i just wrote that on a whim based on an ask on tumblr and idk if this link will actually work on here but if it does, well, here:  post/84555266135/but-but-i-have-a-really-bad-feeling-about-the-whole

ps i havent written a fanfiction since like 3 years ago when i was in middle school and idk i feel like ive definitely gotten better at writing


	2. Chapter 2

Wow okay so i wrote that last one to be like a one-shot but then i was thinking about it and ward like messed up everything for himself because he killed a bunch of people and IS hydra, so even if he turns back to the good side, he's going to end up having to go through trial and be locked up forever or whatever so like if, as brett dalton claimed, there is hope for skyeward, what if ward almost like dies but then he got saved by the alien thingy and then his memory went all like... like... but okay this probably actually could never happen because the last of the gh-325 exploded and/or was used on skye? spoiler alert for that i guess? but this is fanfiction so let's pretend that didn't actually happen or idk im rambling im just going to write. okay? okay. cool.

xxx

His gun was trained at her head and a devious smile played at his lips. Her hands were all over her hips, desperately searching for the gun she could have sworn that he had hidden. But she remembered. _Ward had taken it._ Slowly, she brought her hands up to her head in a surrender.

"Thanks for decrypting the harddrive, now it looks like we don't need you anymore."

Her eyes stared down the daunting barrel of his gun and slowly trailed up his arm, up his neck, to her face, and locked with his eyes. "You could, you know, just let me go and not kill me." Her heart was pounding against her chest and she could have sworn that she gave away her fear, but this was what she was prepared for. All of that training with Ward, she knew what to do. She could handle it.

"Where's the fun in that?" he laughed. His smile grew lighter as if they were merely companions, but his eyes remained the same. Dark. His eyes were dark and shrouded with the evil his HYDRA alliance bestowed upon him.

Skye flew through the motions and almost had him disarmed, but his hand had grabbed a handful of her hair. He pulled her back, a tearing sensation shocked her and she hesitated. This was long enough for Garrett to gain back control of his gun and press it right against her forehead, finger on the trigger.

Blood splattered and a body fell to the ground with an insignificant thud. A shocked yelp and a head snapped in the direction of where the bullet came from. Ward stood there, his gun pointed at where the fallen body had stood originally.

"Ward!"

Everything that had happened to them between the time she had figured out that he was HYDRA up until now was completely forgotten as she rushed to him. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him to her. Slowly, he lowered his arm and dropped the gun. His arm then found its way to her back. Skye looked up at him and his eyes looked back down at her, haunted.

"Skye..." he murmured, empty, and she stared at him, concern flickering in her eyes.

A gunshot. Instinct took over and Ward was on top of her, shielding her with his own body. Something warm and liquid dripped onto her forehead. Her eyes focused on his face. More rained onto her forehead and she blinked. A gaping red hole was all she saw. Not his skin, not his shirt, but a bullet hole dripping wet with his warm blood. She felt her own blood turn cold and her heartbeat accelerated.

"Ward? _Ward_!" Skye let out a bloodcurdling scream. Her hand was on his chest, trying to stop the bleeding, trying to heal him even if she knew that he was gone.

And everything that happened during this whole HYDRA ideal meant nothing. Her screams, calling him a traitor and a Nazi, it meant nothing to her now. Now, all she could think of was that she was losing him, that she had lost him and she would never get him back. All it took was a bullet to the heart she didn't even know existed.

"Okay... Okay... Oh my God... Oh my God..." Her breathing was irregular and her voice was unsteady. Slowly, she wriggled herself out from underneath him and turned him over so that he was on his back. She checked for a pulse while looking at Garrett. He had moved and a gun was in his limp hand.

The rest of her team stormed into HYDRA's base and found her there, her face covered with Ward's blood, Ward lying there with a bullet in his chest, and Garrett dead. Garrett had tried to shoot Skye, he had tried to shoot Ward, either one of them worked, and Ward had just been the one that worked. Simmons quickly set to work, doing the best she could with what she had in the condition that she had. Ward's eyes flickered open momentarily and everyone leaned in closer to take a look.

"Please step back," Simmons ordered despite the waver in her voice.

Ward's mouth formed words and Skye leaned her head in to listen. "I deserve it."

"No, no you don't. Don't say that."

"Garrett goes to hell, so do I." So quiet, so dim, so much pain.

Grant Ward was a strong man. When it came to destroying his enemy, he could execute it with his left pinky, blindfolded. But that's where his strength ended. His lips stopped moving.

"He's gone," Simmons whispered.

"Maybe it was for the best, he was HYDRA afterall," Triplett said solemnly.

Skye opened her mouth, but Fitz shouted back at him before she had the chance. "No. No, don't you dare say that! Ward is good a good man and he's still a member of our team!"

"Fitz..." Simmons touched his shoulder.

"No, Jemma! You know as well as I do how great of a man Ward is! He can't be dead!" he protested against her touch.

She held him. "Oh, Fitz..."

"Fitz is right," Coulson said. "He may have affiliated himself with HYDRA, but he's still a member of our team." He looked at Simmons. "Is there still anymore of the GH-325?"

Stunned, she nodded and quickly dug into her bag and pulled out a small container containing what was left of the drug. Simmons looked at him, worried. Coulson nodded and she got to work. She pulled out a syringe and transferred the GH-325 from the container into the syringe. It took another look at Coulson and another nod from him to inject it into Ward. The effects quickly took effect and Coulson shouted and order to restrain him.

"He needs to have his memory wiped of anything that has to do with the GH-325," Coulson said.

Simmons quickly looked up at him while she and Fitz held him down. "But sir, we can't possibly do that! That requires advanced..."

"I don't care. Just get it done. Until then, we need to get him hooked up to a monitor and watched very carefully." He nodded at Ward who was unconsciously screaming and writhing. His strong limbs wrestled the two scientists and it took all of Simmons, Fitz, Skye, May, and Triplett to keep him from moving around too much.

Fitz stared at Coulson. "I can do it."

"Good." He raced off and Coulson took his place. "Well on the bright side, he can't be tried too harshly for something he doesn't remember, right?" They lifted his body, trying not to drop him as he screamed, and carried him onto the bus.

For a good two hours, they all waited. Ward had stopped moving and screaming and was now comatose. The bulletwound seemed to have healed itself and color was returning back to his skin. For his mind, no one was really sure if that was still okay. No one would ever find out. Fitz bursted through the doors and appeared by Ward's bedside with a machine that had two wires connected to it. Fearful that Ward would begin thrashing around, he applied the padded wires ro Ward's head quickly.

"It's like an AED," Fitz explained, "for the brain. Only instead of reviving his brain, his memories can be altered. But, sir," he looked at Coulson, "this may not work. The human brain is complex and locating exact memories will be hard. This may erase his memories completely."

Coulson's eyes darted from Ward, to every member present, and then to Fitz. "Just do it."

He nodded and pressed a button. Ward jerked and was completely still. Fitz's fingers danced on the controls of his creation as he tried to wipe out traces of the GH-324 from his memory. When he was done, he removed the wires. Time would tell.

A Grant Ward woke up with his muscles sore. It wasn't unusual, as he was used to excess in physical exertion. Waking up in a hospital room, too, wasn't all of a surprise to him. He sat up and palmed his face, wondering just what the heck he did to get himself there.

The door to his hospital room opened and Skye walked in. She looked surprised to see him awake, but the surprise quickly disappeared with a smile to replace it. "I was under the impression that robots didn't sleep, let alone sleep for days."

His lip twitched upward and he laughed to himself internally as she leaned back. "How long was I out and what happened?"

"Three days. You don't remember what happened?" she replied.

Ward shook his head. "The last thing I remember was that… you were… shot…" He looked at her strangely. "You're okay. I thought you were dying, but you're okay."

Skye flashed him a grin. "Yeah, I am okay. Coulson thought that it may have to do with me being an 0-8-4, but while I was dying, you went after Ian Quinn and you got shot."

"Did I?" He furrowed his eyebrows. That didn't seem right.

She saw his confusion and sat on the chair next to his bed and clasped his hand. Ward looked at her and then found his way down to their hands. "I'm just glad you're okay," Skye told him and let go. His eyes followed the pathway of her hand and then looked at her, studying her carefully. "In other news, Agent Triplett is here."

"Is Garrett?"

Skye chewed on her lip for a moment. "Who?"

"He was my S.O. He was also Triplett's S.O. Garrett trained the both of us."

"Oh. No. He isn't here." She looked down.

"Skye, what aren't you telling me?"

She looked back at him. "Look, I don't know how to tell you this, but there's no more S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA's taken over and now we're all on the run." She saw him tense slightly, but didn't address it. "We're all waiting on you to be able to get up and fighting again before we make our move in defeating HYDRA. What do you think we should do?"

Ward shook his head. "I don't know. I just woke up, remember?"

"Right. Yeah." Skye shook her head. "We're also going to be taken to trial and-" She quickly stood up. "Excuse me." As quickly as she had stood and her facial expression had changed, Skye had left the hospital room, and when she came back, Coulson was with her.

"What's going on?" he looked at Skye and Ward strangely.

"Ward, we all know you're HYDRA," Coulson began, noting the way Ward's fists clenched at the bed sheets. "Garrett's dead and from what Skye's told me, you've forgotten a lot of what you've done. You've killed people and you killed Agent Hand, but somehow, you got yourself hit hard in the head to forget all of that after you were shot. Right now, you are under our custody once HYDRA is eradicated, you'll be tried for everything you've done but can't remember. Make your play."

His face fell. "Garrett is _dead_?"

"Yes and _you_ killed him. You killed him for… well…" He glanced at Skye who looked back at him.

She held Ward's hand again. "You killed him because he was going to kill me."

"_Garrett is dead_?" He quickly shook his head. "No, no, no, you don't understand. No, no, no," he stared deep into Skye's eyes, "I owe him my life."

"No you don't, you don't owe him anything," she assured him.

He looked at Coulson now. "I'll be put on trial?" Coulson nodded. "And I'll most likely be sent to the Fridge for it?" He paused, and then shook his head. "If I killed people like you said I did, then why-"

"HYDRA took the Fridge. You'll be arrested and sent to a normal prison for the time being."

Ward looked down darkly. "Back where I started," he mumbled.

Just then, Triplett walked in and knocked on the door. "Sir, Skye, Fitzsimmons found something." He pointed outside where the shouts of Fitzsimmons were heard along with May telling them to calm down.

"Alright. Let's go, Skye."

Coulson headed out and Skye followed. Ward grabbed her hand and she stopped and turned around to look at him. He looked distraught and completely lost. His hand gripped her arm tightly and he tugged so that she would come closer. "Don't leave," he whispered shakily.

Skye took his hand and gave it a squeeze after he had let go. "I promise, I won't." She leaned down and kissed his forehead. When she pulled away, he held his hand behind her head and kissed her. She let him. He needed this, and although she knew that right now, this was dangerous, she allowed him this one.

xxx

wahaha i'm sorry, i just read through a couple of paragraphs of this, and i just realized that im so used to bs-ing my english essay's that i've managed to bs bits of this fanfiction with unnecessarily big words that probably dont make sense? i should probably edit that but idk it seems okay.

This definitely was not one of my better works oh my gosh this is so bad i cant and i am extremely sorry if you think it's not very good, but hey, if you think you can write better, im up for reading yours


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